Qasim Rashid

Qasim Rashid is a best-selling and critically acclaimed author, practicing attorney, visiting fellow at Harvard University's Prince AlWaleed bin Talal School of Islamic Studies, and national spokesperson for Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA.

Qasim’s new book #TalkToMe: Changing the Narrative on Race, Religion, & Education is due out in December 2015. #TalkToMe is a non-fiction memoir on how the power of dialogue can overcome racism, xenophobia, intolerance, and violence.

Previously, Qasim published EXTREMIST: A Response to Geert Wilders & Terrorists Everywhere (2014), which became an Amazon #1 Best Seller on Islam.

Qasim’s first solo-authored work is the critically acclaimed book, The Wrong Kind of Muslim: An Untold Story of Persecution & Perseverance (2013).

Qasim regularly publishes on TIME, The Huffington Post, Washington Post, Daily Caller, and CNN. His work has additionally appeared in USA Today, The Daily Beast, National Public Radio, Virginia Pilot, among various other national and international outlets. He also regularly speaks at a variety of universities and houses of worship, and interviews in a variety of media including the New York Times, FOX News, Pittsburg Post-Gazette, Muslim Television Ahmadiyya International, Huff Post Live, Al Jazeera, NBC, CBS, Voice of America, among several other national and international outlets.

Reading Time: 4 minutesOriginally published in TIME (Nov 10, 2016) One of the high marks of Islam that Prophet Muhammad taught is that loyalty to your country is part of your faith. I can sympathize with the anger and fear that many have about a Donald Trump presidency: I’m a person of color; I’m

Reading Time: 4 minutesOriginally Published in Time I’m an immigrant, an American Muslim and I have family overseas. A Muslim ban would materially impact me — but I can’t help but thank President Trump. I thank him, but not because I think the ban is a necessary — it’s not. Our immigration and

Reading Time: 4 minutesOriginally published in Time Those who say Islam is the problem are ignorant Since 9/11, “reforming” Islam under the guise of combatting extremism has become increasingly financially lucrative. More than $57 million has been spent to promote fear of Islam and Muslims. And it seems like everyone’s an expert—including those

Reading Time: 4 minutesOriginally published in Time ‘Wars cannot end terrorism, but personal sacrifice and education can’ This year, Eid ul Adha—Islam’s holiest holiday—falls just one day after the 15-year anniversary of 9/11. Perhaps serendipitous, just one day after the anniversary of when extremists violently took so much, the Eid of Sacrifice asks

Reading Time: 5 minutesOriginally published in Muftah After intense international pressure, France’s highest court overturned the “Burkini” ban on Friday, August 26, 2016. Before the move, over a dozen French cities had banned the burkini. Most recently, armed officers forced a Muslim woman to dress down under threat of pepper spray and arrest, essentially

Reading Time: 4 minutesOriginally posted on NewsWeek The great Indian scholar and immigrant Muslim missionary, Dr. Mufti Muhammad Sadiq, was immediately detained upon arriving in Philadelphia in 1920. In a racially charged nation, at a time when the KKK was 4 million strong, Sadiq—an Indian missionary for the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community—had little

Reading Time: 5 minutesOriginally Published in Huffington Post As I left my mosque in Philadelphia Friday afternoon my phone lit up with texts and tweets about attacks in Paris. Muslims have been conditioned on how to respond to these attacks. First, we feel pain for the loss of life. And most certainly my

Reading Time: 8 minutesOriginally published in The Huffington Post Dear daughter, Next month I’ll become a father for the first time to a girl. You will be my daughter. Your mother and I are blessed with two boys already, and we are thrilled to finally have the blessing of a girl in our

Reading Time: 4 minutesOriginally published in Patheos In his recent anti-Muslim crusade, Ben Carson promoted a disturbing form of religious segregation, claiming that a Muslim should only be president if he or she “renounces the tenets of Islam. Sadly, just as racial segregationists long garnered votes by promoting fear of black Americans, religious segregationists such as Carson

Reading Time: 5 minutesOriginally published in The Huffington Post This October, anti-Islam extremists are planning roughly twenty anti-Muslim protests in front of mosques in America. Some of those protests will be armed with loaded and deadly weapons. Those supporting these armed protests claim they do so in the name of “free speech” to